Chapter Ten
Eira
The grotto's fog thins slowly, cooling against my scales like a fading breath. The moss bed still holds the imprint of Ruby's form where she had been nestled.
The crystal clusters dim their glow, casting long shadows that stretch across the pools. The vents bubbling softer now, their heat pressing up through the stone with an insistent warmth that wasn't there before.
I curl my tail around the empty space, the plush moss yielding under its weight. But the absence aches, a hollow cold seeping into my chest, sharper than the lake's depths.
Her goodbye kiss lingers on my lips, warm and salty with tears, her hazel eyes wide with panic as she pulled away, the fissure closing behind her like a wound sealing too soon.
A faint vibration ripples through the water then, tingling along my fins like a distant call, syncing with my heartbeat in uneven pulses.
It's her… Ruby's steps in the cabin, her presence echoing down through the ice, the pearls inside her amplifying the signal.
The sensation pulls at me, a gentle tug that makes my scales prickle. The teal glow in the pools flickers in response as if the grotto itself senses her.
I glide to the underside of the ice, pressing my palm against the frozen barrier. The cold bites into my skin but the ripples tingling warm through, her rhythm a phantom touch that stirs the emptiness deeper.
Tears well in my eyes, mixing with the water as I remember my sisters' departures… their tails slipping from mine, their hums fading into silence, leaving me to guard this realm alone. The loneliness layered over me like frost until it became my only companion.
The ripples strengthen as night falls, her movements above—pacing, perhaps—sending waves that tingle through my scales, making my tail twitch restlessly against the stone.
I surface in the grotto, water dripping from my hair like unshed tears, and the emptiness presses in. The steam now clammy on my scales, the geysers' spuming hotter, scorching faintly where they brush my fins.
The thaw advances. I feel it in the warmer currents swirling through the tunnels, the ice above groaning with each shift, cracks spidering out like veins in the deep. Her pull echoes that loss, but deeper now.
My chest tightens with each pulse, a hum escaping my throat involuntarily, vibrating the air as tears trace hot paths down my face, the water rippling in sympathy.
I patrol the tunnels, my tail propelling me through the narrowing veins of stone, the water heating uncomfortably against my scales, currents pulling stronger than before.
The pulses echo follow me, her presence teasing through the ice… faint at first, then surging as if she's touching herself above. The pearls amplify every motion into waves that crash against me.
My body yearns, fins flaring with the urge to break through. But fear lashes like my tail against the walls, the rules broken further, the thaw claiming all if the surface draws too close.
My tail lashes the water into froth.
Flashbacks flood in… my sisters' warnings hummed in harmony.
"Surface draws destruction," their voices blending with the vents' hiss as they faded. Leaving me to hold the line, the loneliness a cold weight that now cracks under her call.
The debate rages inside, my body caught in conflicting currents.
Part of me hums a call, the pulses pulling back toward her, my scales warming with the need to bind us fully.
Another part of me pulls away from the ice, tail lashing the water into froth, the fear of her freedom a sting like overheated springs.
Let the deep heal alone?
The thought of freeing her twists in my chest, tears blurring the teal glow as I remember the sisters I couldn't hold. Their pearls dormant now, the legacy lost.
Stories surface in the hum, deepening as I press my forehead to the ice, the pearl’s echo syncing with my own.
The pearls grow to bind fated souls. I hum to myself, the pressure in my scales building as they stir in response, glowing brighter with each distant vibration from her above.
A revelation that healing the thaw requires them laid together, their growth drawing fate to seal the thaw's breaches.
The protective urge stirs then, heightening with each pulse.
Her warmth could mend this, stabilize the ice before the vents boil over, but only if she returns. Thoughts weigh heavy… free her, and the loneliness claims me fully. The thaw shattering the balance… keep her through the bond, and we weave something enduring.
The amplified emptiness aches deeper as I curl in the grotto again, tracing the greenery where she lay, the plush texture cold under my fingers without her warmth.
Pulses tease her presence, her touches above echoing through.
It makes my body respond with tingles that leave me breathless, tears falling freely into the pools, the water rippling with my sobs.
The hum breaks into fragments, my voice trembling as I whisper to the empty space,
"Her call echoes too strongly—can't let it fade."
My hand drifts lower, fingers brushing my scales at the pleasure still linked through the pearls inside her. Pleasure shimmers through me as I feel their distant movements.
Thoughts weigh the ancient echoes, memories of woven bonds surfacing amid the ache, pearls binding if laid together, mending the thaw's fractures.
A vibration surge crashes through then, my body tensing rigid, a hum escaping my lips unbidden as her call strengthens. The deep whispering of bonds yet to form in echoes too powerful to silence.
The geysers spume with a fiercer hiss now, their heat scalding my scales as I glide near. The water turning uncomfortably warm, pressing against my fins like an unwelcome embrace that forces me to recoil.
Above, the ice groans louder, vibrations rumbling through the deep and into my body, making my tail fin twitch as I surface slightly.
My palm presses flat against the barrier where cracks widen under the pressure, thin lines widening like wounds that refuse to heal.
The thaw's advance burns in my mind as a relentless tide, time slipping with every creak. My tail thrusts toward the barrier without thought, the motion sharp and desperate, my thoughts racing through the haze.
Her warmth could hold this together… if she fades, the thaw swallows it all. Shattering the realm as it did my sisters' bonds, their hums silenced forever.
I hum ancient tunes to the pearls nestled within me, the notes low and trembling. Pressure swells in my lower scales as they stir in response, glowing brighter with each distant vibration from her above.
The resonance links to her like an invisible thread, the glow syncing in pulses that make my breath catch, a promise unfolding in the light. Healing flows only when laid together, their growth drawing fate to seal the thaw's breaches.
The urge surges through me, my body tensing as I press closer to the ice. Hum-calls whispering from my throat to echo her name. Tears freeze on my scales in the biting cold, crystalline and sharp against my skin.
Through the night, the grotto grows colder without her, the steam thinning to a chill mist that clings to my hair, vibrations fading into painful whispers that leave my fins quivering in the quiet.
I curl on the moss, the plush surface empty and unyielding. The emptiness pulls at my core like a void that swallows every breath. Tears trace silent paths down my face as dawn's faint light creeps in.